Chapter 15:

A few weeks later

Over the past few weeks, Kara had gotten settled into her new office and jumped headfirst into every article she had been tasked with producing by her new supervisor, Snapper, who seemed to be the only downside of her new position with his 'snappy' remarks and constantly agitated attitude. Along with that, she had been making the most of actually having a proper boyfriend for what seemed to be the first time, getting lunch, going to movies and bowling, walks in the park and fighting crime together. As she spent more time with Barry, she couldn't help but feel more and more drawn to him and along with that, she felt lonelier when they spent time apart, which wasn't often given they lived together and worked on the same floor.

Within the first week she already couldn't imagine going back to life without him, especially in her work as Supergirl. When she had first begun, she had been eager and a little apprehensive, from there on she had thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of fighting for good and actually using her powers and being her true self. Things had then taken a sharp turn as her episode with Red Kryptonite had opened her eyes to the reality of what she had been doing and only made her feel more ostracised than ever for being an alien on Earth. Once she had been lifted from that pit of depression upon the scarlet speedster's first visit, she had begun to feel less isolated in her role as Supergirl and her work, but once her new friend was gone, she still felt that being Supergirl was a duty rather than what she was meant to do. Now that Barry had returned it is as if light had returned to her life and her eyes were reopened, being Supergirl had once again become one of the brightest parts of her life as she enjoyed spreading hope and joy whilst protecting the city, with the added bonus of sharing it with the man she was falling in love with.

The only times where her newfound joy had been interrupted were her nightmares, yet they were receding as she slept in Barry's arms, and even those still lingering were soothed as she woke and felt his arms around her. Everyone in her life had noticed her rather obvious joy as she bounced around as if with springs in her heels and looked as if she had swallowed the sun. Winn and Alex's lives had similarly been brightened, even if not as much, by both Barry's presences and the clearing of the somewhat sombre mood that had hung in the air with Kara's loneliness.

Barry had similarly greatly enjoyed the past few weeks and found himself growing closer and closer to Kara. He had thrown himself into his work which unlike the description of working in Catco's IT department, realistically involved him doing extremely advanced research in the 'supercave' that put leading researchers to shame. Winn had also taken to assisting him on many occasions and they had decided to work together on designing an advanced software to run the advanced technology, that would run like a super-computer without requiring liquid nitrogen cooling and could be fitted into normal devices. Barry had already created much of the technology required when he designed the multiverse communication device that necessitated a more powerful system than was available in order to develop and maintain a link to another universe, and so had decided to instead tweak the existing devices schematics. The pair had begun formulating plans on what they could do to build their own technology company and had decided that whilst Barry would lead the operation with his inventions and inhuman intelligence, Winn would be the lead developer for required software as is his area of speciality.

Along with their 'work', Barry had also installed similar monitoring systems as his own suit, into Kara's symbol, which through use of some of the advanced technology he was developing, could scan her system for kryptonite exposure and solar energy levels amongst a wide array of other measurements. Alike to his 'partner-in-crime' Barry had also greatly enjoyed being the Flash once again and found that despite his great apprehension as a result of the entire debacle with Zoom, through Winn, surprisingly Alex and most significantly, Kara's support he had been able to re-embrace the role.

At this point, it was late Friday night and Kara was out running down a lead on a drug import that Alex had come across in her work at the DEO and had Barry on call for when she found anything, not that she requires the assistance to deal with regular criminals, but rather because they both felt better and enjoyed it when they worked together. Barry on the other hand was still at Catco in the 'supercave' where Winn was at the computer, working away at the new software for their devices, and he was working on the laptop Kara had gotten him, despite his attempted refusal at her having to still support him financially, and was working on the construction of a business plan for how they are going to get off the ground, something that had been his primary focus for quite some time. The pair were working off of energy drinks, as was apparent within the scattering of cans around the trash can where Winn had missed every time as he tried to replicate the flawless shots Barry got due to his advanced senses.

Despite the advanced speeds at which Barry's brain could run at, he was still struggling to find a solution to the problem of their initial funding for the idea, although this hadn't stopped him in the slightest. He had decided to begin with completing the necessary studies for a range of business and economic degrees at universities around the world to get a firm grasp of what he'd need to know. After the couple days which that had taken him, Barry had then narrowed down the main problem being that of funding the initial venture, given that producing a marketable product would cost millions even if he could create all the necessary plans from scratch himself.

One of the main problems he had encountered in the funding of the business was gaining the funding he needs without handing away control. Most often companies are built with the funds of investors, who in return own a percentage of the profits and have control over decisions made. Figuring that it would be far easier down the road, especially with avoiding explaining his abnormal intelligence and 'extra activities', to not have any shareholders and rather hold 100% equity himself. Given this ability to individually run the company, Barry would then be able to make decisions himself and be able to make positive change to the world without meeting the selfish requisites of the majority of businesspeople. As a result, he was then left with the issue of sourcing all the funding for the venture himself.

It was upon this issue that he had been focussing for the past two weeks and after rejecting the idea of smart saving with his salary for a few centuries, he had been struggling. It was as Winn talked about how it would be amazing when he could use a phone, he had invented himself, or a computer they had made that Barry made the break-through he needed.

"That's it!" Barry shouted, causing Winn to fall backwards with his chair as he jumped in shock, having been used to receiving Barry's dismissive and occasional "yeah" or "cool" as he spoke.

"What!? What is it?" Winn said as his heart slowed from its rapid pace while he picked himself up.

"We sell the technology to another company." Barry replied.

"What!? Why would we do that, I thought the idea was to make your own company." Winn questioned incredulously.

"In order to create a company, I will need a large amount of money to get the first few projects off the ground, before any revenue comes in. I can't get a loan for that sort of money and I don't want to take investments and have to give away control or owe someone from the get-go." Barry explained.

Winn nodded in understanding, having sat back down in his chair, prompting Barry to go on, "Instead, in order to gain the initial funds, I can sell some preliminary technology that is still strides ahead of current devices, to an established company. The designs shouldn't take long or be too difficult for me to whip up and later when I get the company started, we can release something that is still far better than what we sold to the competition, so it'll be no problem." Barry explained to which Winn grinned.

"Are you sure you can make something that's in-between what you can sell later and what's around now?" Winn asked, concerned for the reliability of Barry's plan.

"well, I'll put it this way, the operating systems and drivers you're developing is already shaping out to be good enough to run current systems faster, couple that with the technology that I've already designed that should run more than 5 times faster, we will be leagues ahead." At that, Winn's face lit up with a broader grin and he raised his latest can of energy drink and sculled the entire thing.

As Winn had finished, the phone Kara had gotten Barry buzzed and lit up with a photo of him and Kara with their faces squished next to one another and huge smiles on their faces as they hugged one another, facing the camera. Barry smiled as he saw it, remembering the night when they had gone out bowling, and after both of them scoring a perfect game against one another and drawing the attention of a large audience, they had snuck off and taken the photo in the photo booth in the arcade. As Barry stared at the picture he got lost in the happy memory and even with Kara on the other end of the call he missed her somehow, wanting her next to him, as he thought this, he realised that he had fallen in love with her, not having previously realised it as he was so captivated by her such thoughts fell to the wayside.

Having fallen into a trance, Barry accidentally allowed the phone to vibrate its way off the coffee table and onto the ground with a clatter, resulting in Winn being shocked from his sudden focus on getting his empty can into the bin and whining in annoyance as it bounced off the wall behind the bin and onto the floor. Broken out of his own thoughts, Barry supersped as he picked up his phone and answered the call, putting it up to his ear.

"Hey Kara, what's going on?" Barry asked, voice laced with concern.

"Hey Barry, I found the warehouse that the drug traffickers are using as a storehouse. I overheard a conversation regarding a deal that's happening in 10 minutes and Alex has gotten a squad together for infiltration. Can you join?" Kara said excitedly, sounding almost pleading when she said if he could come, even though she knew he was almost definitely coming.

"Of course, I'll see you in a sec." Barry said before hanging up and speeding into his outfit that was in a bag in the corner of the office and racing to Kara's side at the address, she had sent him.

Kara had been flying around the city since the sun went down, not wanting to scare off the criminals as she flew above them so that she could catch them. Usually the DEO avoided involving themselves in business that doesn't involve aliens, although these drug dealers had been evading law enforcement for a few months now and had already moved a large amount into the city. It was once they had gotten violent though, that drew the DEO into the matter as Alex conceded defeat to Kara's insistence that the DEO help her resolve this situation, as there had been a slew of drug deal related bashings and two murders. As such the DEO had used government resources to gain intel on a drug site that was stocked that night in national that would have the head of the operation there. The intel had also revealed that the criminals had been a group of ex-military soldiers that had been dishonourably discharged and took with them high grade stolen weaponry, and had included a list of known weapons they had such as two mounted heavy machine guns that were equipped to pierce heavy armoured vehicles and a prototype rifle that was designed to pierce tanks in order to cripple one in a few shots.

Due to this intel, Alex had 'stressed' to Kara the importance of being careful given that even with her invulnerability one of those tank crippling rounds may still give her a bruise, although Alex's 'stressing' of the issue was more like a lecture in regard to Kara's recklessness, spawned from her overprotective big sister role. Alex had also grown to accept Barry in the past few week but remained somewhat suspicious of him as she saw how quickly her sister had obviously fallen for him. As such, Alex had included within her lecture that it would be unwise to bring Barry along as one of the bullets could kill him if he gets caught in the crossfire. Kara had defensively argued that Barry knew what he was doing and had been a hero for longer than she herself had. Despite this she had some concern as she always had when seeing Barry in potential harm, although she knew that he could handle himself and wouldn't want to be left behind due to personal risk. She had accepted that she would watch out for him, as always, and he also most likely wouldn't need help.

As she flew over the warehouses near the docks, Kara x-rayed through the rooves to find one of them unusually empty and more alarmingly, containing two shipping container along with two armoured vehicles with mounted artillery fitting the intel's description.

As she watched the warehouse, a group that she quickly identified as their targets entered and she listened into what they were saying.

"We need to get rid of these weapons boss, if we keep them in the city that flying girl scout will find them and we'll have to deal with her." One of them spoke to the one who seemed to be leading the group.

"I know, I've got a meeting organised tonight, a terrorist group is keen to ship them out immediately and hand over a large amount of cash, hence the meeting I set up tonight." The leader responded,

"What group?" Another of the group queried.

"Didn't ask, don't need to know, keep your mouth shut and we'll pocket a large enough sum tonight that we can expand our organisation 3-fold." This got the man to close his mouth which had opened to retort the initial response.

The men soon opened the shipping container and started to remove what must have been half a ton of whatever narcotic it was they were moving, amongst it was a shipping of weapons that in and of it self must have taken some bribery to get into the country.

As Kara continued to observe the events as she floated in the cloud cover over the warehouse district, she soon heard that the meeting was to take place in a hour, with the men preparing the vehicles to be loaded into the containers and truck soon pulling up in front of the warehouse, likely destined for a transport vessel that night bound for whatever war torn state was purchasing them.

Having gotten enough information, Kara quickly called Alex, giving her an update on the new information she had recovered and soon after called Barry, requesting assistance. Kara couldn't deny that she was excited, but that was no surprise as she loved working with her speedster boyfriend. This time though she was especially excited as it was her first big, organised crime bust that she had been working with Alex on for the past few weeks.

As she landed on the roof of a run down factory a block away from the site, she was joined by Barry already outfitted in his suit with his cowl up. Whilst Barry also loved to work with Supergirl he was more serious than usual that night. Kara had been giving him updates on the progress of this case that she had been working on and whilst he refrained from involving himself directly as Kara was clearly enjoying the work she was doing with her sister; he did know most of the details already.

After a quick update on the specifics of the situation from Kara, Barry turned to look at the site that didn't seem at all out of the norm as two trucks sat idling in front of the warehouse awaiting a container for delivery. He was stressed about the harm that could befall Kara at the hands of the military grade weapons, but kept that to himself knowing that Kara was well aware and that he would do everything in his power to protect her regardless.

Instead, he discussed plans of action with Kara, giving some advice from what he had learned in his time as a hero, along with the plethora of knowledge he learnt, both from reviewing Oliver's work and as taught by him and the league. Kara listened attentively absorbing everything Barry was saying as she thought about how best to handle the situation, planning for each eventuality, especially escape as Barry insisted despite the fact that they along with the DEO should be more than capable of handling this.

Kara definitely looked up to Barry as the Flash for all he had achieved, whilst Kara had learnt a lot in her own experience, she was often times more cavalier and suffered less physically from failure due to her relative invulnerability. Although with how far Barry had come, he could shake off serious blows mostly unfazed, in his time becoming who he is now he had suffered many injuries and worked with the intense focus that Oliver had drilled into him.

Along with that, the training Barry had from the League had not only given him a greatly formidable fighting skill but had also provided him with a strategic mind that anyone else would need decades to form under the same tutors.

The pair soon quietened down as the time for the planned meet was only a couple minutes off, the DEO positioned in the otherwise empty factory that they were perched on top of, ready to roll out and assist once Kara and Barry have moved in, hopefully disarming the criminals so as to avoid casualties on either side.

Soon enough a small convoy of vans arrived from which around 20 men arrived and made their way inside whilst the drivers remained in the vehicles. As Kara listened to their arrival, she predicted that the group were Russian based on their accent and the language some of the backup were speaking as they headed in. Waiting for the right opportunity, Kara listened to their discussion as Barry made a quick run around the facility.

Barry moved as fast as he could whilst restraining the accompanying destruction of his highest speeds, as such even if someone noticed his trail it would be such a short flicker that they would likely play it off as a reflection or something. As he returned to Kara's side, he informed her that there was a set of 5 people patrolling the perimeter of the location, armed with automatic rifles that matched Kara's description of the weapons they were withdrawing from the containers.

Initiating their plan, Barry raced back and, one by one, took each of the patrolling guards from their place into the factory with their weapons disassembled and cuffs on their wrists. That only took a little over a second before he arrived back on the roof again, the agents who had only seen him at his speeds on his first visit at best were baffled as the entire group seemed to appear in a blink.

The pair were then quick to move in, Barry walking in the front door as Kara crashed through the ceiling on the other side of the building. Not wasting time in discussion with the criminals as Kara had often done in the past, she channelled the instruction given to her by Barry and used her speed to disarm as many of the men as possible.

Unfortunately for the pair of heroes, the Russians seemed far more prepared to fight their way out at any cost and before Barry could finish disarming them as he disassembled each weapon as he went, the leader had let loose a bundle of grenades that he'd had strapped to his chest, the pins flying across the room.

Barry didn't waste a moment as he sped across the room and grabbed each grenade and its pin before reassembling each one before they had the chance to go off. In all six grenades had been thrown out and, in the anarchy, the occupants had scattered looking for either new weapons or cover from the explosives.

Having gotten four of the grenades, Barry leapt off the ground, then boosted himself off one of the shipping containers in order to catch one of the pins that had been flying through the air out of reach. Lowering himself to the ground he reassembled the next grenade and moved onto the last. Unfortunately, a miscalculation on his part having lost time as he was jumped through the air, the last pin had gone through an open window of the car. With a burst of speed, Barry phased through the door and after a rapid search located the pin in the footwell.

Grabbing it and phasing back out of the car, Barry raced to the last grenade, but as he did, he saw cracks forming on the shell with bright light shining through. It took Barry only a split millisecond before he figured out what had happened, they must have come prepared for a fight with the superheroes of the city as these grenades had far shorter fuses than normal. Clearly, he had underestimated their opponents readiness.

Nonetheless, Barry had soon devised a solution and clutched the explosive as it was tearing apart and phased it into one of the empty shipping containers. Resulting in a shuddering boom as the sides of the container were blown out slightly. Barry took only a moment to glance at his hands that burned with pain, but his suit had fortunately survived seeming to suffer no permanent damage, and with his league training he was able to shrug off the burning pain in his hands and moved on to the next task.

When the grenades had been released, Kara froze momentarily in shock, trying to comprehend the fact that this person had been perfectly prepared to kill the men he was working with for a moments distraction. This was followed by a desperate brainstorm of what she could do to stop them from killing at least half the rooms occupants and likely setting off the crates of ammunition in the room in the world's deadliest firework display.

Before she could come up with anything she saw Barry turn to a blur as he enacted his own solution and she moved onto the next problem, having complete faith in him to manage the issue even though even to her his actions were little more than a blur.

As she continued her work disarming the leftover individuals, she realised more were moving over to the stacks of weapons that had been unloaded from the crates and soon moved to take care of them, knocking each out with what for her constituted a light tap on the head more than a punch.

Soon enough she heard the explosion off inside the shipping container, the sound distracting the large majority of criminals, Kara instead thanking Rao that the only blast seemed to go off in the container, she moved to disable the last of the men.

It was at this point that the DEO arrived at the facility, Alex giving up on the plan to stay out until given the all-clear, at the sound of the explosion going off. The agents swarmed the building, outnumbering the already largely disarmed forces and moving to cuff each of them as they held the others in their sights demanding they drop their weapons which they did.

As this happened, Barry went after the runners, as was the plan. Making his way around the warehouse he apprehended 7 who had run and had them cuffed and disarmed in short order, noticing that the DEO agents had come through with apprehending the drivers before they could make an escape.

That was when everything had seemed to be turning out as well as could be expected but instead turned sideways. The Russian leader, after throwing out the explosives had made for the closest vehicle and positioned himself behind the fully loaded turret, rapidly unleashing a barrage of bullets towards the agents who were covering the main entrance.

This last ditch effort was quickly put to a halt as an enraged Supergirl yanked the brute from his place, throwing him into the edge of the warehouse with a sickening crunch as he yelled in pain, one of his arms appearing irreparably mangled. The bullets though were another matter, with the power of the gun used, the bullets were moving at a greatly increased velocity, at such speeds Kara couldn't hope to intersect their collision course with the agents. As she watched what was about to happen with a horrified expression Barry raced back into the facility.

Pushing himself as hard as he could, Barry made his way across the line of agents that were about to be mowed down. With each step he caught another few bullets before they could complete their path but even at that speed, he could see the bullets encroach on their targets. Moving to the end of the spray, Barry saw that Alex was about to be torn apart by the last two rounds.

With a scream Barry pulled on his powers as much as he could and clasped the first bullet, throwing it aside as he'd done with the rest. In his leap he reached out for the last bullet and managed to just clasp onto it as he passed in front of Alex. Having had no plan to stop himself Barry shot straight through the shipping previously unharmed shipping container and into the second before coming to a stop as he collided with the other side of it, rocking the container almost causing it to roll.

Alex let out a gasp of shock as she'd been sure she was done for when she saw the terrorist shoot at her and her fellow agents. Having braced for the impact it took her a moment to realise she was okay as she heard the clangs of the heavy rounds falling to the floor in a line in front of the agents. Kara on the other hand was able to keep up with what was happening to a greater extent and let out a horrified gasp as she raced through the hole Barry had made in the container that had seen far better days, already having contained an explosion.

As she got to Barry's side, she heard a soft groan as he wheezed out a breath, clearly struggling to breath. Lifting him up in her arms as carefully as she could, as if he were made of glass, Kara brough him out of the container before taking flight and shooting out through the hole she had made on her way in.

Racing off at supersonic speeds she soon reached the DEO headquarters and was in the med bay. Kara shook with nerves as she stepped back after having placed Barry on one of the beds that had been prepped in case of any injuries in the field that night. She couldn't bear the sight of Barry being in that bed again and was blaming herself. Before she could spiral further, she felt Barry's hand grasp her own in a far weaker grip than usual and heard him wheeze in a soft whisper.

"I'm okay Kara, just a bit out of breath ok, don't worry." He looked into her eyes and Kara could see the honesty in his eyes and she let out a relieved sigh before she moved back properly so that the doctors could do what they had too.

Seeing that Barry would be ok Kara raced back to the warehouse, arriving only a little over a minute after she had left. She made her way over to Alex immediately to make sure she was ok only to see her roughly cuffing the Russian leader as he yelled in pain at the bending of his already brutalised shoulder.

As Alex heard her arrive, she looked up at Kara her face showing barely restrained fury, "Is he ok Supergirl?" Alex's voice held a cold fury that Kara hadn't heard before and seemed to promise death should the answer be wrong.

Kara simply nodded and Alex let out a breath that she had seemed to be holding since she had been saved. Kara then grabbed the man off the ground and held him up against the wall, his feet dangling. As Supergirl held him by the throat in a painfully tight grip his arm was further twisted as he screamed in pain.

Kara's eyes lit up, a burning red encompassing her entire eyes as she was moments off incinerating the man who had threatened death to her sister and then injured the man she loved. Kara was shaken for a moment by her own thoughts, but it only took her a moment to conclude that it as true, she loved Barry and this man had almost taken him from her.

Alex watched, conflicted herself as to whether she should stop her sister doing whatever it was she had planned. Kara couldn't bring herself to stoop to the man's level as Barry and her sister would be okay, so instead she leaned in close and whispered, "Should you ever even think about hurting someone I care about again, no one will find your corpse."

Kara then let him fall to the floor before turning to her sister and embracing her tightly. The pair stuck around until the operation was wrapped up, everyone having been apprehended with the only injury being sustained by Barry on their side. All of the equipment was collected and moved to the military base that all the criminals and supplies were being delivered where other federal agents would assume control of the situation.

Kara then took Alex with her back to the DEO despite Alex hating flying with Kara as she found it sickening, both of them wanting to see how Barry was. As they arrived, they made their way to the hospital room and they saw Barry getting his hands tightly wrapped in bandages, a bandage being the only thing he had on his upper half.

Kara blushed at the partially naked state of her boyfriend as she waited for the doctor to finish up, listening in to what the doctor was saying, she heard him inform Barry that he should be able to take the bandages off the next morning if his previous records were anything to go by and that by then he would be fully healed.

As the doctor left, Kara moved into the room, followed by Alex, Barry looking up at the pair and letting out a sigh of relief as he saw that Alex was completely fine, if a little shaken. Rather than going straight to Barry, Kara lifted up his suit which lay on a table beside the bed, observing both the gloves and chest to see the damage from the injuries and look for any blood to indicate how hurt he'd been.

Seeing Kara's hands shaking as she gripped the suit Barry walked up behind her, encircling her waste with his arms as he pulled her into him, not showing any signs of the resulting lancing pain that shot through his chest and hands.

Kara spoke in a shaky voice, "I-I thought I'd lost you again, and it was all my fault, I should have planned better, I shouldn't have gotten you involved. I'm so sorry." Kara shuddered with barely retained sobs as she leant against Barry for support.

"No, you did everything right, it was a good plan, and it went well, I'm sure we got everyone, and no one's seriously injured. I'll be fine, it's all part of the job I just need to be fast and get stronger. Me being injured is only my own fault, not yours, and I don't want to hear differently."

Kara sighed softly as she turned and encircled Barry with her own arms softly, careful not to hurt him further. She was inclined to argue further about it not being Barry's fault, but she knew it was a lost battle and they didn't need to have the argument now. Instead, they shared a soft kiss before she gently pushed him by the shoulders to sit back down on the bed, going back to stand next to Alex and adopting the same stance with her arms crossed and a frown on her face.

"How aren't you more injured, those bullets would've hurt even me, and it looks like it hit you in the chest?" Kara said sternly.

Barry was distracted for a few moments as he thought Kara looked amazingly sexy as she stood with, he arms crossed and what he thought was a cute frown on her face in her Supergirl suit. Snapping out of it before Kara could notice, seeing Alex's smirk as she knew what was happening, Barry answered the question.

"Well, my hands were damaged when I caught the exploding grenade and phased it into one of the containers, the ongoing explosion continued as I tried to hold it together long enough." As he said this, he held up his hands which had the palms wrapped in white bandages, but they could see the deep purple colouration of his fingers, that was already beginning to recede as he rapidly healed.

"My chest is a result of the last bullet, when I caught it I didn't have enough strength in my hands or time enough to stop it and it continued at a slightly slower pace into my chest, resulting in bruising and a few cracked ribs." Alex was impressed by this, not just that he took a bullet for her, but that he took part of a grenade explosion, cracked ribs from a bullet, and went through three containers and didn't show any sign of the pain he must undoubtably feel. Whilst Alex had already grown to like Barry more, despite not making it clear to him, this situation made her admire him, coupled with the bullet he took for her, she felt indebted to him.

"The limited injuries is a result of two factors, as my speed increases so does my physical condition, I've gotten, and am still getting, stronger and far more durable, I have to be to withstand the conditions caused when using my powers. When I first got my powers, it made me stronger and slightly more durable than the average person, but not outside of ordinary in that area, since then I've improved to the extent that its almost a power of its own." Barry said this with a cheeky smirk as Kara rolled her eyes but let out a soft laugh at Barry taking this moment of all to brag about having some of her own powers too.

Moving on Barry continued, "The rest would be my suit, it is a marvel of engineering really and I have Cisco to thank mostly, even if I did some tweaking of my own. It's made up of a tri-weave, the outer and inner layer are a titanium dipped fibre mesh, in between is a magnetorheological fluid based armour system. The fluid hardens in response to impact, designed for superior shock absorption along with greater force in counter attacks. It's more flexible allowing for greater manoeuvrability whilst providing far greater protection than my previous suit."

"Woah." Was all Kara said as she though of how impressive the suit was and felt a pang in her heart as she thought of how she missed the opportunity to meet the person who went to the effort of designing this to protect her boyfriend, and her heart broke slightly as she was reminded of the pain Barry suffered as he lost his team and family.

Alex was similarly impressed and was interested about whether she could get that sort of suit but knew now wasn't the time for such a discussion. Kara took the chance to move back over to Barry and give him another soft embrace before she kissed his cheek lightly and announced that she would return with food.

After she left Alex shuffled slightly, not sure what to say specifically, she ran out of time though as Barry coughed awkwardly, making Alex realise she must look very odd as she acted entirely out of character.

"I just want to say thank you, you saved my life tonight, at great risk to your own." She said sincerely.

"Its all part of the job Alex, and regardless, you might not realise but your one of the people I'm closest to in the world, of course I'd do everything I could to protect you."

Alex bushed at the thought but then smiled slightly, before turning to leave and ponder what this all meant, "And Alex" Barry said drawing her attention back, "I plan to be with Kara, by her side no matter what happens for as long as she'll have me, and I hope that that means we end up living our lives together. Kara loves her family more than anything and you're her closest family regardless of what world you're from, that means that I'll always protect you and I hope that we can be close, I could use some more family." Barry bared his soul, showing that he was still suffering deeply from what had happened despite his training from the league to never show his emotions.

Alex had some tears in her eyes that she refused to let run, but she embraced Barry in a soft hug, "Thanks Barr, I would love to have a brother." Alex spoke in a deeply emotional voice that was greatly uncommon for her, "You ever hurt Kara though and I'll be your worst goddamn nightmare." She said but there was no heat in her words.

She then pulled back and kissed his cheek softly before walking out. Kara almost immediately entered the room with her arms laden with hot food and a warm smile on her face. The night was then spent pigging out on all the food Kara bought before she gently carried him back to their apartment and they fell asleep together on their bed.

Kara smiled all night and as she laid in bed with Barry's arm around her, she replayed the scene she had come back too at the DEO. She felt a whole bundle of emotions because of it, she was beyond elated as she heard Barry say he intended to be with her for their whole lives, she was overjoyed at the relationship developing between Barry and Alex, she was absolutely shocked that Alex had kissed his cheek, something she never thought she'd see. On top of all that though, Kara was determined, determined to make sure Barry was okay, that he was happy and had a home.

He was incredibly good at hiding his pain, something he'd likely developed since he was a child, Kara reflected, thinking back to his tales of being bullied relentlessly at school. As such, Kara hadn't noticed the true extent of how much he had been hurting still from loosing what was effectively his planet, something she thought she especially should have realised. As a result, she knew she had her work laid out for her, but it was work she was more than prepared to do and she knew that together She and Barry would be unstoppable.

A/N:

Been working on this now and then as I'm inspired, hope you enjoyed the last few chapters.

Please tell me if you liked it and any ideas you have for what will happen next and what you want to see.

See you in the next chapter :)